#oneoftheseplease: week 4

Date: décembre 11, 2013

Pedalling through a city’s streets, parks and pathways is the best way to travel and explore. So being fully equipped for city riding makes the experience even more enjoyable. From fenders to footwear, you can truly make the city your oyster with the right balance of functional things and well-designed forms. Here’s this week’s gift guide taking a look at the good things in life on two wheels. Don’t forget to tweet and ‘gram all of your wants and wishes using hashtag #oneoftheseplease.

The Rapha City Cycling Guide Set – $40

Plan your next adventure in a European city by bike. The big ones are in there —London and Paris — but there are also cities that are a bit unexpected — Milan, Copenhagen and Ghent, Belgium (the epicentre of Classics territory). The illustrations and pocket-size format make this collection a welcome addition to any bookshelf or backpack. Added bonus: all the routes contained within the books are available to download GPX style in the “Training Routes”: http://www.rapha.cc/city-cycling-racing-and-training-routes section.

Knog lights’ swapability (changing from bike to bike) and sheer firepower ( lumens) make the Knog Blinder Road series a go-to in the Portland and London offices. There so good in fact that we even used them a few weeks ago when we went for a little nighttime cyclocross action. The lights work fantastically on city streets with ambient light and even better in a completely dark forest.

These guys spare no expense when it comes to their beautiful city bikes. They spent the summer and early fall traveling with the Shinola crew – setting up their bikes and watches at local bike shops around the country. Then, they wrangled in local food carts to supply free food to everyone that stopped. Can’t go wrong there. We spotted this one in the menswear boutique Mohawk Menswear in Silverlake. And what city riding lady or gentlemen would not want to wake up to one of these under their tree?

Bullitt Cargo Bike

Photographer Jake Stangel recently shot the latest Rapha City collection. In an interview with Rapha, Jake mentioned how much fun it was to shoot from the front of a cargo bike or bakfietsen as they call them in the Netherlands. These things are extremely useful and a lot of fun, so everyone should find a need for a cargo bike in their lives at some point. Also, if you follow Jake on Instagram, you may have noticed that he was recently in Barcelona with the Rapha crew shooting once again from the bed of a Bullitt bike.

If you are going to sit in the front of a cargo bike and shoot photos with your Qcamera (see below), you should have a proper Rain Jacket. The camera after all is waterproof, so why shouldn’t you be, too? The orange color stands out at any intersection and the relaxed cut makes the transition from bike to business (or pleasure) seamless.

You may not be able to shoot exactly like Jake Stangel but you can try, and here there is one more way to do it. We all used to have small digital cameras that we carried around, then we all got phones that did the same things plus added filters. Now, you can get a small digital camera that has filters. Imagine the possibilities. The slick web presence and multi color options make the Qcamera highly desirable even before it hits the shelves. I certainly want #oneoftheseplease just to see how it works.

10 Pack of Tubes

What I would really like is a ten pack of tubes. They are the most annoying, smelly, asinine things to buy and the most hated when you do not have one. Can you imagine the delightful gleam in your best friends eye if you showed up for his Christmas party with a ten-pack of these? Just make sure that you get, or ask, for ones with the proper valve length. You do not want to be that guy at the next Rapha Gentlemen’s Race asking everyone who passes whether or not they have a valve adaptor.

Still don’t know what to get yourself (or suggest to your friends)? Use the #oneoftheseplease tag to fill your feed with the gifts you are looking forward to this holiday season. Then, check out the entire City Riding Collection.

#oneoftheseplease

Using the hashtag #oneoftheseplease we want to see you sharing and tagging the things you really want this season via Instagram and Twitter.

Obviously we’d expect most of those things to be Rapha but they don’t have to be. They can be absolutely anything that captures your desire, whether it’s that vintage Italian racing frame, those handmade loafers or state-of-the-art headphones. With some great prizes up for grabs, it’s also a great way of dropping hints to your loved ones.

Just tell us, @rapharacing via Instagram or Twitter that you want #oneoftheseplease. Make sure you add a URL if it’s a link.

And for those who discover some seriously incredible items, or present them in an intriguing way, there are prizes up for grabs: